Requiem
by Empress24601
Summary: When Percy sacrifices himself, what does Annabeth have left to live for? Percabeth oneshot/songfic


**A/N: This song is called Requiem, by the Three Graces. Great song, I suggest you listen to it. As proof of my frequent blonde moments it took me listening to it 5 times before I realized it was a sad song. Then my brain decided it was great Percabeth material and wouldn't leave me alone until I wrote it up. **

**Tell me what you think. Also, what is your favorite line. Thanks and sorry it took me so long to put something new up.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own PJO or the Three Graces. **

**Requiem**

_**As you close your eyes  
I'll become a dream  
Fading like the last star in the sky**_

They ran against the wind; she, half-dragging him across the rough floor of the cavern. The doors loomed over them, tall and milky white. The color had surprised her, but the more she thought about it the more it made sense. White was the true color of death, not black. Bleached bone, sharp teeth, and snow were all white, they all ended in death too.

Gale force winds threatened to rip Percy's hand out of hers but she clung to his fingers with enough force to turn them purple forever. Giddy triumph was beginning to make her dizzy. They were going to make it out! Shrieks and howls of animal fury rose behind them from the crowd of monsters that knew the scent of demigod and were eager for a taste. This only served to make her go faster, pulling at Percy's ever increasing weight.

Finally they reached the entrance, but she was almost pulled to the floor as Percy stopped at the edge of one of the monolithic doors. Whipping around she stared at him, his face dirty and scratched, his eyes haunted in the faint light from outside.

"Oh Styx, that's what it means." He breathed.

"Percy? What is wrong? Come on, we're almost there."

He fell forward a little, until she caught him and grunted under his weight.

"Annabeth, you have to go."

For a minute she thought the wind was playing tricks with her hearing.

"What did you say?"

"The prophecy of the seven," He clarified. "Gaia is back there, I saw her. Don't you remember the lines, '_To storm or fire the world will fall_'?"

His eyes closed for a moment, as if he had something to say that he knew she wouldn't like.

She didn't want to hear it, she would not hear it.

_**With this final kiss  
Stolen from your lips  
You must be the strong one do what's right  
For you and I**_

"You have to go; you are the only one who can help Leo figure out his spheres. Those are important, I know it."

She shook her head, "I'm not leaving you here."

He gripped her shoulders and gave her a tiny shake, like he was trying to make her see sense.

"I am the storm Annabeth! It was either me or Leo that had to face her, looks like I'm going first."

"No! I don't believe it!" She could hear the desperation in her voice, Annabeth Chase didn't _do _desperate. Her eyes dropped, and she finally saw what had made Percy so slow. Three lines, claw marks, running from the right side of his chest just under the armpit, to his left hip: they seemed insignificant enough until they reached his lower abdomen. There they were deeper, showing the nauseating colors of bone and organs. Blood sheeted out from the wound, looking sickly black in the low light.

He lifted her chin so she met his gaze.

"It's not as bad as it looks." He told her with a half-hearted attempt at a smile.

"Yes it is Seaweed Brain. I'm not leaving you like this."

"It's what needs to happen." He said gently. She could hear the monsters growing closer every second, fueled by rage and the promise of escape. But right now she couldn't care less, Percy's forehead rested against her own and she felt a tear slip from the corner of her eye.

He stooped and brushed his lips with hers, she could taste the salt, testament to days of sweat and tears. Before she could talk him out of his crazy plan, he shoved her; pushing her into a stream of air that pulled her outside into the Mediterranean sunlight of Greece.

Tear-filled green eyes, unruly black hair, blood: all she saw before he pushed against the doors and they swung shut, sealing him in hell and her out of heaven.

There was nothing that could stop the raw screams erupting form her soul as the pounded against the unyielding stone.

_**Oh I will sing my requiem  
To a love that hurts with every breath  
And as I walk alone and live without your love  
I will sing my requiem my requiem to you**_

They burned his shroud after the war. She had never stood so close to a fire, and felt so cold.

Malcolm walked into the cabin three days later to find her destroying everything she had ever created. Her scale models, her blueprints, research, months and months worth of labor, years worth of dreams; she just couldn't look at them anymore. Percy had been her something permanent. Anything else was just a cheap imitation.

Malcolm hadn't said anything, he'd pinned her arms to her sides in a hug and sunk to the floor, rocking her back and forth as she sobbed.

The gods called them to Olympus again. They offered her the opportunity to design buildings for most of the major cities that had been destroyed in the war. She asked if she could have Percy instead, but they told her in no uncertain terms that she needed to get over herself, he was dead, let him go.

She flipped them off and stalked out of the throne room.

_**We met just by chance or just by mistake  
The universe was playing with our lives  
It was all a game til I realized  
You're the one I needed all this time  
You saved my life**_

She remembered that summer. She'd been twelve years old, infected with a desire to see the world; he had been her ticket out. Every quest since then, every hare-brained journey had only forged new, stronger bonds between them. She stared at her face in the mirror and grimaced. Tiny scars dotted her skin, tear tracks showed clear lines down her cheeks, her hair was a mess, but it was the broken, haunted look in her eyes that frightened her.

Her nightmares had worsened, even for her; she had become afraid to go to sleep at night. She was afraid because she would sleep only to awaken and see that he wasn't there anymore. Not by her, not on the other end of the phone, he was just gone.

Annabeth Chase could face any number of monsters.

But she couldn't face that.

_**Oh I will sing my requiem  
To a love that hurts with every breath  
And as I walk alone and live without your love  
I will sing my requiem my requiem to you  
**_

She brushed her fingers over his name inscribed in the statue that had been erected for the downed heroes of the war. The sight of the familiar letters drove the wedge further into her soul, tearing her apart inside. But she couldn't cry anymore. All her tears got trapped in her chest, swelling and writhing until she could barely breathe from the pain of them.

Yet no one else heard her silent screams.

Her parents kept her away from camp that summer, theorizing that staying away from things that would trigger her memory would help her recover faster. She lay in bed, face turned towards the wall, ignoring everyone and everything. Her stepmom changed the calendar page twice.

She began dreaming of Hades and Elysium, of reunions with Percy in the Underworld.

A few days later she stopped eating.

_**I see your face, the rising sun, and then I realized that you are gone**_

Strong fingers entwined with hers, a warm body pressed close to her side, grass underneath and clouds above. She turned her head and saw him. His eyes were closed in rapture, as if he were drinking in the sunlight, flecks of gold shone off his hair, danced across his skin. The ache in her chest eased slightly.

He moved so fast she jumped, turning his head and opening his eyes to stare at her.

"Oh my gods," He whispered, "you're actually here."

A moment's silence, then, "I've waited so long."

She could only nod, he edged closer and kissed her; deeper, and with more care then he had at their last separation.

She reeled in the feeling, the long awaited closure, and the _rightness _of it all. He effectively ruined the moment by laughing and tweaking her nose. A moment later she was in hot pursuit, chasing him across the field, the first smile she had worn in years plastered on her face.

__

_**Oh I will sing my requiem  
to a love that hurts with every breath  
and as I walk alone and live without your love  
I will sing my requiem my requiem to you  
To you**_

They burned her shroud the next summer. The last casualty to be claimed by the giant's war.

**A/N: I have to say that I in no way sanction a tragic Percabeth ending. I want them to have a happy ending in the real books, blame this on evil plot bunnies.**


End file.
